3.5 stars.

I picked this book up after having read Ruta Septetys's The Fountains of Silence last year. I found great interest in the Spanish Civil War, as it is a period of history that I know little about. This book presented me an opportunity to learn more from a different perspective and did present quite a different historical experience.

The writing was decent and the plot moved along at what felt like a comfortable pace. There was a lot packed into the plot and I do feel like I learned a lot of pieces of the whole. It did add to my historical understanding and did continue to fuel the fire of wanting to know more about this time period. It was presented in a 1st person POV, which was mostly effective, but I would have possibly enjoyed a 3rd person experience more, as it would have allowed a more intimate look at the parents' experience.

My largest struggle was becoming invested. While I enjoyed the source material and found both the premise and the approach intriguing, I was just overall underwhelmed. I wanted to love it, but I couldn't get there. The characters were likable and the plight of the family was documented well, but I could not connect with them. There were also a few plot choices that bothered me. At times there were things that should have been harrowing, difficult, and even dangerous, yet they were simply resolved without much consequence. In other moments, quite unbelievable and unfortunate circumstances occurred in a way that did not feel organic and left me somewhat rolling my eyes at the absurdity.

This was not a bad read by any means and it certainly has merit. I will admit that my 5-star experience with Sepetys probably hurt the rating for this one. If you are considering both novels, I would read Escobar's book first.